Remember yesterday was my 80th chemo treatment at Swedish Cancer Institute. Dr Gold calls me the Ironman. Anyway, I was hoping for a little celebratory piece of carrot cake somewhere along the line. Well, bless their hearts but Caminohead buddies Catherine and Dana showed up with a piece big enough to share, yea delivered. Thanks you guys.

And then there are two storms coming that are going to hit the region peaking tonight and Saturday night. I have a long list of things to accomplish today so this is going to be short and sweet. Also Dave from the Orange County Santiago church is rolling through. Better get here earlier than later.

That’s what it looks like here. Hope that you are getting through your list today. Love, Felipe.

Savoring the last few days before the monsoon season descends on our beautiful island. We had tapas outside last evening maybe for the last time with George who showed up out of the blue to walk Phil’s Camino. He was such a treat. If your stuck in paradise it is important to have interesting folks along.

Today back at the old cancer treatment center with my bevy of beautiful nurses. It’s my eightieth treatment today but I don’t think anyone baked me a cake. A carrot cake with real creamcheese frosting would be cool just in case anyone is contemplating that, never know.

Thinking about all the great conversations that happened over the last weekend in Tacoma and Hot Springs. We challenge each other, we inspire each other. Yea, and we have fun too.

My Rebecca is off to Tacoma to do the question and answer for the second and final showing Phil!s Camino there. She has never done one before although she has watched a bunch. People love her in the film and it should go well.

I think I am baching it tonight. It is going to be refried spaghetti and playoff baseball for me. It is getting darker dang early these days so need something stimulating in the evenings.

Just a little newsy post today, nothing of major importance. Some days are like that. Thanks for keeping up with me here. Love, Felipe.

This is Steve and Dana Watkins that rolled through my life Sunday at the Hot Springs Film Festival. They drove many miles from Tennessee to be there for the screening of Phil!s Camino. This is the Steve Watkins, the journalist, of Camino/FaceBook fame. They are off to Spain to walk together this time in a few weeks. And there will be another wonderful blow by blow account on FaceBook for you. But the story now is that it was such a lovely visit to be with them for that short afternoon on Sunday.

I am so moved by all the effort people put in to be there with us at the festival. Thank you all. Then there were the three Texan brothers that had caught Phil!s Camino in the afternoon and we would be up with together gabbing “around the campfire” that night. They hadn’t planned on all that but each had a Phil!s Camino T-shirt to remember us by when it was over. I hope they read this blog and comment here once in a while in the future. A most interesting trio.

Seems funny but I go to these festivals and actually see very few films. I seem to fill my time with conversing with folks that have shown up in person. Not saying that there aren’t good things to see but I never seem to quite get there on time. Oh well.

But maybe the high point of the trip was the very last thing there in Hot Springs. The lovely Lisa, a festival volunteer for twenty five years, drove us to the airport in Little Rock about an hour away. She was on her way to work there and we were invited along. As we drove into a most magnificent sunrise, maybe the best I have ever seen, we slowly learned her story. It seems her beautiful nineteen year old son Caton is in the middle of his own major battle with his cancer. Lisa must maintain her job to keep up the insurance for having her son in the hospital for the last half a year. And amazingly a network was set up with mostly festival volunteers to have someone at Caton side all the time, never alone. A tear rolls down my cheek. Caton, I just want to confer on you the honor of being one of our Cancer Commandos. These are the strong folks that whatever the the circumstance seem to cause trouble by having that talent to inspire others. Keep in touch brother.

Well, have I crammed enough in here this morning? Maybe one more thing. There is the Quote of the Week from Terry’s Sabbath Moment blog that I just have to steal (thanks Terry):

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. Reinhold Niebuhr

Thanks Hot Springs, thanks all you that came, thanks Annie for being with me, thanks to you all out there for reading about it, love, Felipe.x

This is a great old festival here in Hot Springs. Well, just how old is it Felipe? Well, this is their twenty fifth anniversary this year. Pretty amazing.

We had a screening and Q and A this afternoon. That went super well. I got to talk with a bunch of the folks after that also. Then Maryjane and Joe, Roni, Annie and I spent the afternoon walking around the historic bathhouses and Annie scalding her little toes sticking them in the hot water coming out of the hillside. Hot water seems to bubble up all over the place.

We all talked Camino and Camino and Camino. We are so enamored with the topic. Is there life after the Camino? I have spent the last two years contemplating what it means that one’s Camino starts at Santiago. Is it all training this walk in Spain. Training for what?

Somehow at the dinner table I got on the topic of the old Zen saying that “First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain and then there is.” I think this was in a Cat Stevens song at some point in the day. Maybe it was somebody else. I need to mention that it is four in the morning here and I can’t sleep so I am up writing to you.

But it occurred to me that maybe this the key to my question. Before the Camino I have a mountain, a reality, my personal reality part of our collective reality. Then on the trail I am separated from my normal life, my reality, my mountain and I learn to like that. Someone has said that the Camino is a
drug. Was that what they were talking about? Then I come back because I ran out of time and/or money. And then what? And the mountain reappears. My reality is still there. And the only way to deal with it and keep my Camino dream is to have a changed perception. To find a way to look at the mountain in a new way, a way that works now. Funny that I am using the word way so much. The Camino is a way. I am seeing that it is a way of physical movement but also a way of perceiving, a way of dealing.

Ah, 1% on my battery. Later, love, Felipe.

Wow, finally have a chance to get to write. Pretty much all day traveling, Seattle to Dallas and then a short hop to Little Rock and an hour drive to Hot Springs. My Rebecca and I were here in the seventies and my memory is of something more sleepy and back woods. Seems different now.

Annie is here and we flew together so we had time to catch up. Roni a grad student doing her dissertation on the Camino drove four hours from Tulsa to be here today. Mary Jane a college prof is going to be here with some of her students. Steve of FaceBook fame is driving from Tennessee to be here. All for the screening at three tomorrow afternoon. This is where the action is!

Annie, Roni and I were out this evening soaking up the ambience and cashing in on the free food and drinks. It was hard to find a quiet spot to talk in all the commotion but tomorrow is another day. Off to Mass at 0830 at St Mary of the Springs. In Port Townsend we went to St Mary Star of the Sea.

So it will be a serious, or not so serious, confab of Caminoheads tomorrow. I will let you know how that goes. Looking forward to sharing ideas and laughs. Well time for some sleep. See you later alligator, love, Felipe.

Off to Tacoma this afternoon to see Phil’s Camino on the big screen, Q and A session afterward. Annie is flying in this morning to join me. Tomorrow we are both off to Little Rock. Two festivals in the same weekend, look at us!

There are three things that I am thinking of to get straight with trips like these. I know the festivals are all different as in they have different flavors but they are similar in some ways too, like one giant party. I have to pay attention to get more sleep and take in less food and drink. That’s the balance there.

Second, I tend to project a sort of happy-go-lucky attitude toward my cancer which I think is generally good. I tend to get heavied out by my own situation much less people coming at me to tell me something about their problems. But I don’t want to appear glib. How does one be serious and light hearted at the same time is the challenge there.

Then lastly is something else that I have been working with for a while and that is how to protect myself from an overload of other people’s problems. I want to be open and helpful and listening in general. But how do I know when enough is enough. Helping others is wonderful but is an energy drain. Maintaining this balance is the hardest of the three.

Well, that is what I am thinking about on this gray and rainy morning. I have some chores to do here at the ranch before I turn into a movie star so have to get going. Have to move a tractor and pay bills, stuff like that. So, hoping that you are getting your stuff balanced out there where you are. Keeping everything smooth is good.

Unbalanced love, Felipe.

More on doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs! Apparently we can’t help ourselves once again. Dr Brad came by yesterday to give my Rebecca her yearly home checkup. She did pretty swell and was he put her the category of “Super Undemented”! OK, we’re celebrating, right? Who wouldn’t?

So, tomorrow starts the Tacoma Film Festival here in Tacoma, WA. This is close by for us as it is just off the south end of the island. Annie is flying in, don’t know exactly when. We will be at the 2 PM screening and are doing the Q and A afterward tomorrow, Friday. You can look at their website for details.

Then we are off to Arkansaw Saturday for the Hot Springs Festival. I am really looking forward to this for I know that some great folks are showing up. Am so privileged to be able to do this stuff.

“Super undemented”, what does that mean anyway? Well, I probably deserve a little credit for that ranking, I mean, keeping her on her toes all these years. I’ll get checked one of these days and I will let you know the outcome. I wonder what the next rank down is, you know the A- version?

Goofing around here a minute ago I ran across the very first blog post that I wrote back in May of 2014, a few months before going to Spain. This was a little bit after the idea hatched, the Spain idea. I remember how excited Annie was when I told her it was going to be called Caminoheads. Anyway, here is that first post. It’s kind of fun. I am looking at it like the Marines landing on a foreign shore, this blogishere that was all new to me:

We’re on shore!

May 21, 2014 3 Comments Edit

Caminoheads – It was hard fought and tough on the treasury but we are on the shore and moving inland rapidly. Bullets, beans and bandages will be coming in behind us. So glad that we had so many friends egging us on to get this blog established. We will have fun! We will keep each other inspired! All that and more. That’s all the writing for one day. SJA (St. James Again), Phil.

There is is, the very first one. Marine blog friends Ken and Juan are proud of me, I am sure. Sometime soon or maybe we are there already we will be at the one thousandth post mark. I will have to try and find that out. It’s been an education in any event.

OK, super undemented loves from here at Phil’s Camino, Felipe.

It is such a blessing having people come to the ranch to check in on us. As the rainy season progresses I would guess that there numbers will decrease. It has been a truly busy summer with company coming and going.

People come to talk about the Camino as in Spain or the other Camino our everyday journey. They come to talk about cancer and curing and healing. They come to talk about spirituality, religion, being a Catholic or being something else. They come to talk about gardening and farming, hunting and fishing.

I am always referencing my doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs which is what I call the hyper talented group of people that supports me. We are heavy on doctors, good on lawyers and so far a little light on Indian chiefs. But yesterday a new visitor, Randall, showed up to fill us in on Native American spirituality so although not a chief he is an adopted member of the Lakota tribe. So, we are getting closer on that. Thanks Randall.

Then I heard from a little bird that we may receive a royal visit in the near future. One of my three Angels from Spain is putting together a plan to come. This is Anamaria, the Princess of Viana, the one and only. I will have to get out my sword and armor and shine them up as she knighted me Sir Felipe of Viana. I haven’t seen her for two years and she just got back from a year in Madrid so we will have plenty to catch up on.

I am a luck guy to be in such company. Sometimes it is a challenge to match their energy but I have fun trying. Thanks so much for everyone that has come this past season, it was wonderful. You keep me going and energized with our walking, talking and tapas.

Time to go as I have a full list of things to accomplish today. Light rain and overcast today, rapidly closing the door on summer here. The best to you all, love, Felipe.

Francis of Assisi, whose feast we celebrate today, experienced radical participation in God’s very life. Such practical knowing of his value and identity allowed Francis to let go of status, privilege, and wealth. Francis knew he was part of God’s plan, connected to creation and other beings, inherently in communion and in love. Francis taught his followers to own nothing so they would not be owned by their possessions.

from today’s blog post of Richard Rohr.

Where you can see PHIL’S CAMINO next:
Friday October 7 at the TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL, 2 PM screening. And yes, the man himself, Felipe, will be there. I will be fetching him coffee, and making sure there are no brown M&Ms, etc.

Sunday October 9 at the HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL in Hot Springs Arkansas. 3 PM, and Phil and I will be in attendance. Special guests include MaryJane Dunn from Henderson University and Roni Kay, from Tulsa. There is even one more, but I don’t want to say until it is definite. Long story short, if you are ANYWHERE in that vicinity, you want to be with us!!
If you are in Australia, you can catch PHIL’S CAMINO at the Heart of Gold film festival that same weekend!

Wednesday October 12, we will be back at the TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL, 4:30 PM.

Saturday and Sunday October 15 and 16, the LA COSTA FILM FESTIVAL

Then I do not have specific times yet, simply because I haven’t had the time to look these up, but we will screen at the YES FESTIVAL in Indiana and the NAPLES FILM FESTIVAL in Naples, FL on the weekend of October 28-30

We will also screen twice at the OJAI FILM FESTIVAL in Ojai, CA on Saturday November 5 at 9 AM and Sunday November 13 at 11:45 AM.
There is one more but I cannot announce it yet. Stay tuned!

I am still fundraising to cover the cost of mastering, designing, printing and duplicating the final version of PHIL’S CAMINO and get copies out to all our original donors. I also want to make the DVD available for sale ASAP. The fundraising effort now also includes raising money to edit an hour long version. We are at about 10% funded right now, and I am grateful. If you are interested in being part of the EXTENDED Special September Fundraiser, you can visit http://www.philscamino.com/ to learn more.

Annie O Neil
Director/Producer: Phil’s Camino www.philscamino.com

Co-producer and Pilgrim: Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago www.caminodocumentary.org

Author: Everyday Camino with Annie www.everydaycaminowithannie.com

310-403-4228